Jason, et al:I made a donation with the hope that you folks do better with the 503 than I did with the 509 (now on display in Cookville, TN). I have a vague recollection that the folks I sold 509 to got permission from Port Arthur to remove some parts from 503 for their never completed restoration of 509...Be well & good luck!J.David

PMC

Post subject: Re: Trying to save the 503

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 5:54 pm

Joined: Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pmPosts: 738

It is amazing that a city named after Arthur Stillwell, the founder of the Kansas City Southern Railroad (and the KC,M&O) would be so quick to scrap this artifact. Perhaps now they can be encouraged to pay the full cost of the environmental remediation instead of part of it being payment in kind from the scrap value of the locomotive, as the leaking wouldn't have happened if they had paid any attention to it at all. As to "who gets it?", in the short term I don't care if the person doing the fundraiser uses my donation to move it to his back yard, so long as it is safe.

Rob Gardner

Post subject: Re: Trying to save the 503

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 8:33 pm

Joined: Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:50 pmPosts: 444

Tom Davidson,

I posed the same question yesterday on FB. From what I read, Texas DECQ(?) rode into town and made an ultimatum to get rid of the asbestos, anyway necessary. If there was/is fuel left in the bunker, someone would surely take it as waste oil for heating fuel. Hopefully the city can/will engage Texas DECQ and get cooler heads to prevail to stop the clock that doesn't need to keep running at this point. Now it's just of matter of what will it take to make things square with the scrapper if he was banking on any additional revenue from the scrapping of the engine.

Best of luck to everyone on the front lines of this battle. Hopefully the governmental agencies and their employees will wake up and do the right thing and surprise us all. The ball is really in their court.

Rob Gardner

Mount Royal

Post subject: Re: Trying to save the 503

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:31 pm

Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:21 pmPosts: 381Location: Danbury, CT

PMC wrote:

It is amazing that a city named after Arthur Stillwell, the founder of the Kansas City Southern Railroad (and the KC,M&O) would be so quick to scrap this artifact.

KCS donated the passenger depot to the city shortly after they discontinued passenger services. The City of Port Arthur promptly demolished the grand building only to build a reconstruction of it about thirty years later on the same location. I have yet to see PA place much care into its history.

_________________Randy PattersonRMNE/NAUG

Trainkid456

Post subject: Re: Trying to save the 503

Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2018 11:52 pm

Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 6:30 pmPosts: 205Location: Illinois

I just left a donation. I have never seen a fundraiser get so much money in this short of time before!

While it is too soon to call this a "success", I am pretty certain this is the first truly "viral" fundraising campaign that has hit the rail preservation community. I've seen lots of "GoFundMe"s for various projects (heck, I've helped run two for the WW&F) but never seen this level of interest.

Kelly is right, the ticking clock is a big motivation. Also the mental and visual image of taking a wrecking ball to a steam locomotive I think is pretty striking. And let's not forget it's a mainline steam locomotive - everyone instinctively knows that those need to be saved, whereas not everyone understands the rarity of a particular class of diesel, or some seemingly random freight car.

What is most encouraging is that this is being funded mainly by small donations. The average donation is under $50. This implies that there is widespread intergenerational interest in rail preservation, and that should be very encouraging to us all.

I made my donation. While I highly doubt that I will ever see this locomotive in person, the mere thought of a steam engine being scrapped in 2018 prompted me to donate.

survivingworldsteam

Post subject: Re: Trying to save the 503

Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2018 7:25 pm

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:45 amPosts: 1135Location: Beaumont, Texas

Statement from the City of Port Arthur. Throw in lead based paint along with asbestos and fuel oil (probably from the ground around the engine and the bearings) to the reasons for the city deciding to have the engine removed.

Like others said, the city has been the caretaker for this engine for several decades; otherwise it would have been scrapped. It is not in a position to take care of it now; so it is time for it to move to a new home.

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